The Promise of E-Development? A Critical Assessment of the State ICT for Poverty Reduction Discourse in South Africa

No metrics data to plot.

The attempt to load metrics for this article has failed.

The attempt to plot a graph for these metrics has failed.

The full text of this article is not currently available.

Brill’s MyBook program is exclusively available on
BrillOnline Books and Journals. Students and scholars affiliated with an
institution that has purchased a Brill E-Book on the BrillOnline platform
automatically have access to the MyBook option for the title(s) acquired by the
Library. Brill MyBook is a print-on-demand paperback copy which is sold at a
favorably uniform low price.

In the hands of the South African government, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for development operates as a powerful discourse, which functions both as an ideology and a rhetorical tool. The South African government's discourse is framed in a rigid modernization schema informed by an overoptimistic understanding of the power and valence of ICT for poverty reduction and broad-based development. Government invokes new ICT as an autonomous and largely unassailable force. Over the last decade, a narrow and deterministic model of ICT for poverty reduction has become hegemonic as an ideal as well as a set of development practices, a model which operates to exclude alternatives. The view of technology as an external, autonomous force exerting an influence on society presents a limited set of options: (1) uncritical embracing of technological change or (2) defensive adaptation to it. If we are to attempt a more objective, detached analysis of ICT for development, then it would seem appropriate to move beyond the linear "cause and effect" model of technological determinism and explore alternative perspectives on society and technology.

10.1163/1569150053888254

/content/journals/10.1163/1569150053888254

dcterms_title,pub_keyword,dcterms_description,pub_author

6

3

Full text loading...

The Promise of E-Development? A Critical Assessment of the State ICT for Poverty Reduction Discourse in South Africa